Deipnosophistae

The Persian king used to drink no other wine but that called the Chalybonian, which Posidonius says is made in Damascus of Syria, from vines which were planted there by the Persians; and at Issa, which is an island in the Adriatic, Agatharchides says that wine is made which is superior to every other wine whatever. The Chian and Thasian wines

are mentioned by Epilycus; who says that

the Chian and the Thasian wine must be strained.

And also,—

1. For all the ills that men endure,
2. Thasian is a certain cure;
3. For any head or stomach ache,
4. Thasian wine I always take,
5. And think it, as I home am reeling,
6. A present from the God of healing.

Clearchus speaks of

Lesbian wine, which Maro himself appears to me to have been the maker of.

And Alexis says—

1. All wise men think
2. The Lesbian is the nicest wine to drink.

And again he says—

1. His whole thoughts every day incline
2. To drink what rich and rosy wine
3. From Thasos and from Lesbos comes,
4. And dainty cakes and sugarplums.

And again—

1. Hail, O Bacchus, ever dear,
2. You who from Lesbos drove dull care
3. With sparkling rosy wine;
4. He who would give one glass away,
5. Too vile on cheerful earth to stay,
6. Shall be no friend of mine.

And Ephippus sings—

1. Oh how luscious, oh how fine
2. Is the Pramnian Lesbian wine!
3. All who 're brave, and all who're wise,
4. Much the wine of Lesbos prize.

And Antiphanes—

1. There is good meat, and plenteous dainty cheer;
2. And Thasian wine, perfumes, and garlands here;
3. Venus loves comfort; but where folks are poor,
4. The merry goddess ever shuns their door.

And Eubulus—

1. In Thasian wine or Chian soak your throttle,
2. Or take of Lesbian an old cobwebb'd bottle.

He speaks too of Psithian wine—

1. Give me some Psithian nectar, rich and neat,
2. To cool my thirst, and quench the burning heat.

And Anaxandrides mentions

a jar full of Psithian wine.

Thesmophorius of Trœzene entitles the second θεσμοφοριάζουσαι of Aristophanes θεσμοφοριάσασαι.. In that play the poet speaks of Peparethian wine:—

1. Shun, my boy, the Pramnian cup,
2. Nor Thasian drink, nor Chian sup;
3. Nor let your glass with Peparethian brighten—
4. For bachelors that liquor's too exciting.

Elbulus says—

1. As sweet as
2. Wine from Leucas or Miletus.

Archestratus, the author of

The Art of giving a Banquet,

says,—

When a libation to the gods you make,

Let your wine worthy be, and ripe and old;

Whose hoary locks droop o'er his purple lake,

Such as in Lesbos' sea-girt isle is sold.

Phœnicia doth a generous liquor bear,

But still the Lesbian I would rather quaff;

For though through age the former rich appear,

You'll find its fragrance will with use go off.

But Lesbian is the true ambrosial juice,

And so the gods, whose home's Olympus, think it;

And if some rather the Phoenician choose,

Let them, as long as they don't make you drink it.

The Thasian isle, too, noble wine doth grow,

When passing years have made its flavour mellow,

And other places too; still all I know

Is that the Lesbian liquor has no fellow.

I need not stop to tell you all the names

Of towns which in the generous contest vie,

Each for itself the vict'ry hotly claims;

But still the Lesbian wine beats all, say I.

Ephippus, too, mentions the Phoenician wine, saying,

Nuts, pomegranates, dates, and other sweetmeats, and small casks of Phœnician wine.

And again,—

1. A cask of good Phœnician wine was tapp'd.

Xenophon, too, mentions it in his Anabasis. The Mendæan wine is mentioned by Cratinus:—

1. When a man tastes Mendæan wine,
2. How rich, says he, how sweet, how fine!
3. I wonder where it can be bought, or
4. What's the right quantity of water.

And Hermippus somewhere introduces Bacchus as mentioning several different kinds of wine:—

1. Mendæan wine such as the gods distil,
2. And sweet Magnesian, cures for every ill,
3. And Thasian, redolent of mild perfume;
4. But of them all the most inviting bloom
5. Mantles above old Homer's Chian glass;
6. That wine doth all its rivals far surpass.
7. There is a wine, which Saprian they call,
8. Soon as the seals from whose rich hogshead fall,
9. Violets and roses mix their lovely scent,
10. And hyacinths, in one rich fragrance blent;
11. You might believe Jove's nectar sparkled there,
12. With such ambrosial odour reeks the air.
13. This is the wine I'll to my friends disclose;
14. The Peparethian trash may suit my foes.

And Phanias the Eresian poet says that the Mendæans are in the habit of syringing the grapes with opening medicine, even while still on the vine; and that this makes the wine soft.